There is a very easy way to return from a casino with a small fortune: go there with a large one.- Jack Yelton

I am tired of our "get money without work mentality" that has permeated America. Sure, I would love to have a bunch of money handed to me - but I do not plan or dream of such a day.

I am sooo glad that I can use my credit card at the gasoline pump. I felt like I was wasting away hours every year standing behind people getting or redeeming lottery tickets.

A while back Massachusetts realized it was going to have a $1.3 billion budget shortfall. Some serious shortage. So . . . does government do what we have to do? Cut back? Do without something new? Get rid of cable? No way. The Governor, in a typically American way of thinking, proposed a quick way to make money. He proposed 3 gambling licenses (for casinos) at $200 million each & then the casinos would be taxed at 27%. There ya go - problem solved.

However, the voters began to educate themselves on the realities of gambling. They learned a lot of things:

Gambling addictions. This is quite a brainless deduction. The more availability for gambling, the more there will be gambling addicts - who will devastate savings, retirement, family, etc. for their addiction.

Seniors. It is estimated that every day, one senior in each casino gamble away their savings. That is 365 per casino. Now government programs step in, as well as family, to make up for it.

Conclusion: when you add up all the costs that can be measured, they concluded that a casino costs up to 3x more than what it brings in.

Gambling involves simply sterile transfers of money or goods between individuals, creating no new money or goods. Although it creates no output, gambling does nevertheless absorb time & resources. When pursued beyond the limits of recreation, where the main purpose after all is to kill time, gambling subtracts from the national income.